Monday, April 16, 2012

The Babes are back and we're all hopped up about this month's bread because Natashya of Living In the Kitchen with Puppies, the host kitchen this month, picked a favorite type of bread of mine, a beer bread!

I used a Michigan micro-brew beer from Bell's, their Two Hearted Ale

named after the Two Hearted River in the UP and being a Yooper and since the Two Hearted River is about 15 miles from where I grew up and while not Canadian beer, the UP is sorta a lost province of Canada (we say "eh" quite a bit too!)I'm hoping Natashya gives me bonus points for using an almost Canadian beer...

I also deviated a bit from the original recipe, which calls for sausage and cheese, by using some hearty herbs and another ingredient from Canada, Ceasar rimming salt!

The bread was super tasty and excellent with a beef stew I made to go with it.

If you want to be a buddy with the Babes this month, bake the bread, post about it at your blog or favorite social media site, and email Natashya with a link to your post by April 29th. She'll include you in the round up and send along a nice little badge for your post.

The night before combine 1¼ cup of bread flour, ¾ cup tepid water and ¼ teaspoon instant yeast, cover with plastic wrap and set aside till next day.

The next morning pour the night before mixture into a large bowl. Add in the room temp. bottle of beer, olive oil, dried onion flakes, 1 cup of bread flour, instant yeast, salt, pepper and sugar, with a wooden spoon mix all these ingredients together till well blended.Mix in another 1½ cups of flour. Sprinkle some more flour onto a flat surface. Pour out the wet dough onto the floured surface, place a little more flour on top. Start to knead the dough and continue to add a little flour till the dough becomes smooth (a little on the tacky side). Knead the dough for about 8 minutes, then place into a lightly oiled bowl, turn the dough over so all the sides are lightly coated. Cover with plastic and let rise for1 hour or till it has doubled in size.

Sprinkle a little flour onto a flat surface and pour out the dough. Add the farmers sausage or any other cooked sausage you like. Add 1 cup of cheese and knead till all incorporated. Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for another 15 minutes. Afterwards cut dough in half, shape into loaves and place onto a cornmeal parchment lined cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 1 hour. Using a sharp knife score the dough about a inch deep. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the loaves. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30-35 minutes or till a thermometer places into middle of loaf reads 180F-190F. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

This bread is sourced from CookingBread.com and we have been given full permission from Chuck to feature the recipe and publish it to our blogs. He is in the middle of switching over his website to a new one, so links may be updated before the publishing date. http://www.cookingbread.com/recipes/savory_bread/beer_bread_recipe.html